Rum Sour cocktail recipe

The Rum Sour belongs, as the name suggests, to the Sour family. These are widely considered to be the earliest style of cocktail and remain some of the most popular drinks even now, proving you can’t beat a classic. You’ve likely had some form of Sour before, whether that's a Pisco Sour, Whisky Sour, Daiquiri, Margarita or something else.

The creation of the Sour family has been credited to the British Navy, who were well supplied with rum. They mixed their rum with lime juice in an effort to prevent scurvy, which resulted in a Daiquiri-like sour drink. And from the 1850s onwards, Sours became regular fixtures at bars across the US.

Mixing a Sour couldn’t be simpler, yet it looks impressive – always a good thing when entertaining. Sours have a base spirit, sugar syrup, citrus and ice, and an egg white for good measure. For a Rum Sour, the base spirit is rum, which will bring different flavours depending on the style of the spirit. The rum’s strength is diluted by ice, while the sugar syrup’s sweetness is balanced by the mouth-puckering lime juice. Finally, the egg white brings a wonderful foamy texture to the cocktail, making it a joy to drink at the start or end of the evening.

Vegans rejoice! A Rum Sour can easily be made vegan by substituting the egg white with aquafaba. What’s aquafaba, you ask? It’s that gelatinous liquid you’ll find in a can of chickpeas. Just take out the egg white and add in a couple of tablespoons of aquafaba to achieve the same result. And don’t worry – you can buy aquafaba at the supermarket, rather than being forced to strain it out of a can of chickpeas.

If you’ve made a Rum Sour using this recipe and like what you’re tasting, the next step is to play around with the balance of ingredients. You’ll be surprised by how different the cocktail can taste when you change up the amount of rum, sugar or bitters you incorporate.